Best Y Level for Diamonds 1.20

ULTIMATE DIAMOND MINING GUIDE

Why are diamonds so wanted by many?

Minecraft Diamonds – shiny blue gems in the world of Minecraft that also happen to be the ore required to have the best gear in the game. Or so it was this way up until the Minecraft version 1.16, starting from which this title belongs to the netherite gear. 

TIP

Start mining Minecraft diamonds on your own Modded Minecraft server!

Despite that diamonds haven’t lost their value, the diamond gear is required to get the netherite one by upgrading it. In fact, after the last few updates, diamonds became even more valuable and wanted by many, all due to the fact that a smithing template (an item that’s required to upgrade a player's gear to a netherite one) can be crafted using the smithing template and 8 diamonds. That’s a lot of diamonds. Those templates are quite rare and cannot be obtained easily, so mining or looking for diamonds seems to be a better option (as long as you have at least one smithing template for future crafts).

Best Y coordinates to mine diamonds

Now that the importance of finding these shiny gems is clear, let’s move on to the main topic of this article: how to easily find diamonds in Minecraft? 

First of all, diamonds in Minecraft are easier to find the closer you are to the bottom of the world. That’s because the density of diamonds spawning increases the closer the player gets to the bedrock. However, just going to the lowest Y coordinate in your world and starting to dig is not the best strategy, since there are mathematically the best Y coordinates for diamond mining. On those sweet spots, you will stumble upon them the most, so here are the best Y coordinates to mine diamonds, corresponding to the game’s version:

Pro tips on how to easily mine lots of diamonds

Now that you know the best Y coordinates for mining, it should already be quite easy. However, we have even more tips for you to make this mining session a cake walk.

First of all, mining methods. They help you optimize your mining and keep it efficient, so let’s get to it. The most obvious one is simply finding a big cave and heading there. This actually works rather well in the newer versions of the game (1.18.x - 1.21.x), since after the world generation rework in version 1.18, caves are much bigger now, and diamonds spawn much more frequently on the surface of the walls, floor, and ceiling.  Although it’s fun to explore caves, it’s also quite dangerous and risky, especially in the early stages of the game, all due to hostile mobs spawning, sudden drops and holes on the floor,  lava lakes, etc.

A better alternative and truly an OG method is strip mining. The idea is simple: you mine a long tunnel, then you mine more tunnels to the sides of the main one. Remember to keep 2 block distance in between the side tunnels, this helps you mine less yet cover the whole area.

Additionally, you could try exploring the underwater caves. This is a new method that was first thought of in version 1.18, after the world generation rework. The logic behind this is simple: water caves are as large as the normal ones, but they don’t have any hostile mobs in them (except for maybe the occasional drowned, but that’s a rather rare encounter), and it’s really easy to move around and spot the diamonds. Just don’t forget to get water-breathing and night vision potions. Also, a door would be a big help. “A door?!” you might ask, yes a door. If you place a door underwater, it creates a small space in which there is no water, and you can safely breathe and mine(this is important, as mining underwater is harder and way slower unless you have a helmet with the Aqua Affinity enchantement) as though you are on the surface.

Second, remember to get your pickaxe (at least an iron one or better) enchanted to Fortune III as soon as possible, since this will help you get more diamonds from one ore.

Other ways to find Minecraft diamonds

Diamonds can be obtained not only via mining, but found as loot in places such as: shipwreck treasure chests, buried treasure, stronghold and village chests, bastion treasure chests, end city chests. Though it can be pretty fun exploring the world and looting chests instead of mining, it’s generally less profitable, since you spend more time finding way less diamonds compared to mining.

Also, if you don’t want to waste any time mining or exploring, we suggest you use a website called orefinder.gg. Just enter the seed of your world (to get your world’s seed just type "/seed" command in chat and copy the number that you’ve been given), choose the game version, and you will have coordinates for lots of diamond veins. However, we warn you that this is borderline cheating. We urge you to only use it in single player mode, or if it’s not against the rules of the server you are playing on.

To the work!

That is everything you need to know to successfully and easily mine lots of diamonds for your needs. We hope this information was useful and finds you well. Thank you for reading, and good luck in the mines!